My Geek Rite of Passage

We use affiliate links. If you buy something through the links on this page, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. Learn more.

I feel like I’ve just reached a new level of geekiness and of course I wanted to share it with all of you :o) This week has been pretty eventful. Tuesday I had a T1 line put into my house (Gadgeteer HQ). There were problems getting it to work and as a result, I had the opportunity to learn several new things. I learned how to make a quick and dirty loopback cable (small pigtail CAT5 cable that you can use to test Ethernet jacks) and I learned how to wire up my own CAT5 patch cables end to end with connectors. Check out my handy dandy crimper tool in the following image…

geekcred

Of course I screwed up the first connector because 2 of the 8 wires inadvertently got crossed. But hey, I feel like a true geek now! :oD Time to go finish wiring a CAT5 wall jack…

6 thoughts on “My Geek Rite of Passage”




  1. Gadgeteer Comment Policy - Please read before commenting
  2. Crimping cables is always an exercise in frustration for me. It is very rare I get a cable that works the first time.

    I’d do anything for a T1 line 🙂

  3. I have to admit I’m jealous of the static IPs, upload speed, low latency, and 24/7 reliability. But not, I’m sure, of the price 🙂

  4. Yeah, the price for the installation was crazy considering that I am 90,000 feet from the central office and they had to put in 7 repeaters… The monthly is also ‘out there’, but this is so much better than my satellite. It’s like night and day! :o)

  5. I live within 1 mile of a CO, and to get a T1 it would still cost more than my cable connection. I still get about 7 to 11Mbps download and 1Mbps upload.

    So my upload is slightly slower than a T1, but my downloads blow it out of the water.

    Plus. it only costs me $60/month. 1/10th what a T1 to my house would be.

  6. Joshua:

    You’re very lucky and I’m envious. Unfortunately for me, I live in the woods. 12 acres of woods to be exact. It’s a rural area with no DSL, no Wireless and no Cable. I’ve been using HughesNet satellite as my ISP for several years. I finally decided I deserved something better and went on a T1 adventure. :o)

    Of course next week the phone company will probably add DSL and the cable company will run cable to my area. ;o)

  7. > Of course next week the phone company will probably add DSL

    Well, now that you’ve paid to install all those repeaters, why wouldn’t they? I’m sure your neighbors will appreciate it!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *